I’ve noticed something recently. Increasingly, I see my clients, particularly higher managers or equivalent, using pad computers, mostly but no exclusively iPads and mostly although not exclusively bought by their companies. I would really like to see the statistics on ROI on this.
When I see this I can’t help but wonder if we’re not going to experience something similar to what happened when PCs hit the market nearly 30 years ago. When PCs first hit the market they were status symbols. The less likely you were to use them the more likely you were to have them. As the prices went down (which they did for a while) they became increasingly common and ultimately ubiquitous. However, despite the investment well into the billions companies really had very little to show for it.
I recall a Forbes cover article that delved into what companies were getting for all of their investment in desktop technology and the answer was not very much. Then several developments took place in quick succession that changed everything. Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989. The Internet was opened to the public in 1992. NCSA’s Mosaic web browser, the first to gain popularity in a Windows environment, was produced in 1993. And Windows 95, the first reasonably stable and generally useful version of Windows, able to make real use of the burgeoning World Wide Web, came out, of course, in 1995. The rest is history.
After fifteen years of investment companies actually began to see a return for their money. It took three things: critical mass in adoption, stability, and massive networking.
Given how hot tablets are I suspect that companies are buying a lot of them. I don’t have any hard figures to support this but I suspect that hospitals and docs are buy a lot of them with federal grant money as part of the push for electronic recordkeeping. Are they already seeing a return on the investment? Or will it take a critical mass and some special oomph?
BTW, I’d planned a post on this next item which, somehow, never materialized. Most apps never recover their cost of development. Hope springs eternal.
Are lack of typing skills a part of the preference for iPads?
I type about 80-90 wpm. I took a typing in class in high school so I could type my own college papers but computer advances reinforced the value of typing. I’ve heard a number of older people say they could type well at one time, but the skills atrophied after college and in some cases they were ordered not to ever type anything. OTOH, I would imagine younger people may not value typing as much for various reasons.
I have no idea what my present typing rate is. At one point it was 120 wpm.
Typing was a required subject in my high school. My high school English senior year final consisted of a typed 10 page paper. We had four hours to research it and produce finished copy in the days long before Google, word processors, and printers for ordinary people that could produce typeset copy. One of the items I brought with me to college was a typewriter, much as kids bring notebook computers with them nowadays. Several of my college courses required facility with a slide rule.
I’ve had a personal computer in my home since 1972 but that’s a story for another time.
I think that typing is a useful skill and will remain so for the foreseeable future. To some extent it’s a life skill like swimming, cooking, balancing your checkbook, or being able to mend your own clothes.
If my post isn’t clear, right now I suspect that tablets (iPad, Android-based, etc.) in the workplace and maybe beyond are a status item. I’d sure be interested in the numbers.
If my post isn’t clear, right now I suspect that tablets (iPad, Android-based, etc.) in the workplace and maybe beyond are a status item. I’d sure be interested in the numbers.
You could well be largely correct. I have now just begun to use an iPad. The reason is simple: it’s light and allows me to organize and process information – which is all I need anymore – while others in the firm actually produce spreadsheets and word or PowerPoint docs. For me it’s convenience and utility, but for many I have noticed that Apple products are just “gotta have” for cache and their toy features.
I, too, was a 120WPM typist thanks to a high school class, though it was not required and I was the only carrier of XY genes in the class.
It stood me in good stead both in university and in various jobs I held while studying: typesetting and editing. I caught the transition from hot type to computer-assisted typesetting, still a ways away from WYSIWYG and full-page formatting.
I haven’t taken a timed test yet, but I’m sure I’m still at 80+.
When I started working for the federal government in the late 70s, stand-alone, dedicated word processors were just coming in. There was usually one per office, with everyone else still banging away on typewriters, IBM Selectrics for the most part.
Those machines, usually given to either the best typist or the boss’s secretary, increased through-put immensely. They were soon overtaken, though, by PCs.
PCs allowed (demanded?) reduction in clerical staff. Secretarial jobs were cut to the bone. Each officer was expected to do his own typing, whether or not that was time or cost efficient. In my case, it was probably fine–except for the opportunity costs. For others, who were still (and probably are still) in the hunt-and-peck mode, it’s not been a success.
I don’t have an iPad, but my wife does. She loves it, up and down, but…
She has a case for it, made of light aluminum, that includes a full-sized, Bluetooth keyboard. She take the iPad out, props it up in the case, and is ready to go. It adds about 1/4″ to the thickness, 1/16″ to the width and depth, and maybe 6oz. to the weight. It still fits in her satchels and carry-ons the same way a naked iPad would.
Touch-screen typing is okay for brief SMS, but not for anything else–at least for me. I’m now approaching 50 years at a keyboard and am happy enough with that to not want to change.
“I caught the transition from hot type to computer-assisted typesetting, still a ways away from WYSIWYG and full-page formatting.”
So did I. I actually saw a linotype machine in operation once, setting pages for a magazine I worked on. What I recall most vividly was the pot of molten metal (some kind of lead alloy) perched atop the typesetting machine. Scared the living shit out of me when I first saw it. Got the hell out of that room as fast as I could go. Can’t imagine what the long-term effects of those fumes were on the operator. Jesus.